1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing machine, and more particularly, to a washing machine having a means for preventing a lid frame having a lid from being incorrectly assembled to a detergent box.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, water and detergent are held in a tub of a drum type washing machine and a laundry if put in a drum inside the tub. The drum is then rotated to perform washing, rinsing, and dewatering.
The general drum type washing machine consists of a tub having an open front side to hold water and detergent, a drum rotatably provided in the tub to hold laundry, a motor rotating the drum, a cabinet holding the tub and the motor inside, and a detergent box in the cabinet to provide the detergent to the tub.
A user has difficulty in putting an appropriate amount of detergent in the drum directly. Moreover, if the detergent is directly put in the drum, color of the laundry may be changeable. Hence, the detergent storing assembly is separately installed in an upper part of the cabinet to allow the detergent to flow in the tub together with the supplied water.
The detergent storing assembly consists of a detergent box holding a detergent to provide to a tub in washing, a lid frame fixed to an upper rim of the detergent box to have an opening at an entrance for inputting the detergent, and a lid hinge-coupled to the lid frame to open/close a topside of the detergent box.
The detergent box is installed at a top plate, on which a control panel for controlling a washing machine is installed, forming a topside of a cabinet of the washing machine and has a plurality of detergent storing parts to separately store detergent powder, fiber softener, and bleaching agent.
Specifically, the detergent box is installed in a loading hole formed at the top plate. For this, the detergent box has hooks formed at front and rear ends. Also, hook holes are formed on an inner wall of the loading holes to correspond to the hooks.
The lid frame connected to the lid is fixed to the above-constructed detergent box.
The lid frame is assembled to the detergent box in the following manner. First of all, fitting protrusions protruding upward from both upper sides of the front and rear ends of the detergent box are fitted to coupling protrusions protruding downward from a bottom of the lid frame, respectively. Also, the lid frame is then fixed to the detergent box using screws.
The lid frame assembled to the detergent box is loaded on the rim of the loading hole at the top plate.
However, in the above-constructed detergent storing assembly of the drum type washing machine, a plurality of the fitting protrusions formed at the upper front and rear ends of the detergent box are formed alike, as well as a plurality of the coupling protrusions formed at the bottom of the lid frame are formed alike. Hence, the lid frame may be turned by 180° to be incorrectly assembled to the detergent box.
To overcome such a problem, development of a washing machine having a structure enabling to prevent the incorrect assembly between the lid frame and the detergent box is needed.